Obama for the U.S. Senate

October 24, 2004

It has been tremendously encouraging in this campaign to hear him speak of the need to change the intensely partisan tone of political rhetoric in this country, to say, as he did at the Democratic National Convention: "There's not a liberal America and a conservative America, there is the United States of America. There's not a black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America, there is the United States of America."

Obama is no latecomer to the themes struck in his brilliant keynote speech at the convention, which rocketed him into the national stratosphere.

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Some unusual circumstances have played on this race. A leading Democratic primary candidate imploded after divorce record disclosures. The Republican primary winner, Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race after embarrassing disclosures from his own divorce files. The leaderless Republicans flailed for weeks before choosing a replacement. And then they chose the bombastic, ultra-conservative Alan Keyes of Maryland, who instantly alienated great swaths of the state with his shrill rhetoric. It is hard now to call this a contest.

If Jack Ryan had remained in the race, though, the outcome of the election and the Tribune's choice would have been the same.

Obama's election to the Senate is a foregone conclusion. The self-described skinny guy with a funny name who says he survived college with two towels in the bathroom and three plates in the kitchen is already being talked about as a candidate one day for president.

That underscores the unique pressures he will face in the Senate, where he likely will be the only African-American. He hasn't left the Illinois Senate, yet he's already in great demand around the country from Democrats who want to be linked to his star.

The expectation here is that Obama won't succumb to the pressures or get caught up in the celebrity. The expectation is that he will be an effective senator because he will listen to Illinoisans, and to the voice that has gotten him this far--his own.